Where are we now and how did we get here?

The rise and fall of citizenship are studied in terms of the post-war generation in the UK and US from 1945 to the present. The background is the demography of the period from the population explosion that was the basis of the Baby Boomers to the low fertility regime today. 1945 saw the creation of a welfare state, free education, and the NHS. With the economic policies of J.M. Keynes, there was a government commitment to full employment. However, the affluent society also saw the continuity of poverty. The Thatcher Years (1979–1990) involved neo-liberalism, de-industrialisation, and finance capitalism. The new cultural industries were politically contested. In the US, it was Reaganomics. Both societies have had a history of racism, aggravated by migration and the idea of white replacement. British politics were influenced by the ‘special relationship’ with the US in exchange for the abandonment of a socialist agenda and involvement in foreign wars. New issues now face the legacy of post-war British citizenship: migration, national fragmentation after Brexit, population decline, populism, the precariat, and fake news. The individual now experiences social membership in modern Britain as a denizen rather than a citizen.